Erti tve Sakartvelshi

Last Saturday was my first month Georgianniversary, and I have already a lot of stories and feelings to share.

About Georgia, what striked me first is that Georgian people are soooooo generous and welcoming. I don't mean than French and European people are not nice, but here people give you time and attention so easily, and they don't expect nothing back. This is just Georgian style, sharing moments together and be kind to each other.

Also, food is good here. I am vegetarian but it's not a problem for me here because there are lots of veggies. I obviously tasted mushrooms Khinkali and Khachapuri, also eggplants meals... and wine is also delicious. 

I went to Bakuriani and Borjomi for on-arrival training. On-arrival training was a very cool experience, I've met lots of new European friends. Now I can't wait to visit more, I want to go everywhere in Georgia. I live in Rustavi and I like this life, it's a charming city and we have everything we need here. Plus, I fell in love with Tbilisi. I love big cities, but Tbilisi is soooo charming and there are lots of  places to go. It's rare to see a capital city which has a sea, mountains, old town, modern buildings and old monuments at the same time. And this sight, this night life, I really love it. I wish this country was more known in Europe, but I'm very happy that I came here without any stereotypes or expectation, and now I can learn about Georgia by myself and have my own opinion.

I started Georgian lessons, and I'm really interested in this language and alphabet which I think is beautiful. Here, it feels like anything can happen, time is not so important so I feel free to live intensely day by day. I guess it's not about what happens, but about how you receive what is happening. I've been waiting this travel for soooo long, and now I can enjoy every meeting, every Georgian places, food, or moment. About volunteer life, we have a very cool rhythm, and a lot of freedom so we can propose anything that we want to organize (events, activities with kids, visits...).This is a very great feeling to live with new people and to share moments together, talking about our culture, sharing movies or Georgian food, visiting...  Special mention to my coordinator who makes me feel so comfortable. I started theatre clubs in GYE and this is a very good moment in the week for me.

I cant wait to live the rest of my experience here!

Maïlys

Time goes fast and days are intense in Georgia

It has been two months since I started my ESC adventure in Georgia. Time goes so fast! I tried to spend it actively and days are intense.

So, during these 2 months I traveled a lot! So far, Samtskhe-javakheti is my favourite region. The visit in Vardzia and Achalciche was really impressive, I loved Rabati castle and the city in caves. Apart from that, I have been to other parts of the country: Svaneti (Mestia and Ushguli), Racha, Gori and Uplistsikhe, Sighnaghi, Telavi and Kvareli, Borjomi nad Bakuriani, as well as Dashbashi and Birtvisi canions. Every weekend, I try to move somewhere out of Rustavi and explore Georgia... and there are still so many places which I would like to see! The more I travel, the more interesting destinations I discover. My favourite way of moving around is... hitchhiking! It works so well here in Georgia. It never takes more than 5 minutes until a car stops. People often give me a lift even if my destination is not exactly on their way. I find Georgians really hospitable and helpful! Once it even happened to me that I was invited for a Supra :D So much fun, and so much good food and wine! That's what I love hitchhiking for: you never know which kind of interesting people you are going to meet. That's the best way to meet locals!

So this is how I spend my weekends, now a bit more about what I do from Monday to Friday. I spend most of the time in GYE office and there is always something going on here. Five times per week I give language classes: basic and advanced Spanish, as well as basic French. There are still many places left in the groups, so if you happen to be willing to learn these languages or if you know someone who wants to learn them, just come and join us! It is not like a boring school class, we have fun, play games and learn in an entertaining way.

Once a week, I lead Psychology Workshop. I am really happy to run this club! Last year, I graduated from psychological studies but I have to admit that in Poland this university degree is pretty theoretical. We read many books and articles, have lot of discussions... but there is not much space for practice. That's why here, in GYE, it is the first time when I actually have the opportunity to run a real workshop and apply my knowledge in practice. That's useful! Every week I choose a different topic: so far we talked about unconsciousness, social influence mechanisms, the psychological explanation for evil, as well as about human brain, its possibilities and limitations. I am happy to have active participants and interesting discussions with them. Not only I teach them something every week, but they also share their knowledge with me and have already taught me a lot! People seem to be very interested in psychology.

To sum up, time goes really fast here Georgia! There are so many things to do, so many beautiful places to discover and so many interesting people to meet. I hope I will not slow down my daily rhythm until the end of my stay here!

Hanna

The dynamic adventures of a lazy volunteer

Hello, beautiful people! I’m writing this article, because my coordinator Nana is begging me for almost 4 days to write it, and I, keeping a real Georgian spirit, am being late with this task. As Georgians say: “Wherever you go, you have to wear the native hat”, or something along those lines.

The real reason I’m being lazy with it is that, since the last time I wrote something about my EVS(or rather ESC) experience, a lot has happened, internally and externally, and I really cannot express enough emphasis on the A LOT part. I really don’t know where to start.

Anyway, here we go.

Racha

Summer has gone by really fast. I took part in many scout centre and GYE projects, helped them with logistics stuff as well as organizing activities etc. Most of my summer time I just spent with my Georgian pals, skating, doing nothing and just basically enjoying my time. Shout-out to Patrick! I must say, that I have progressed quite a lot in the wonderful hobby of board on four wheels, proud of myself, yo. Did some travelling as well, have seen most of the country, but there still is enormous amount to explore and see. The worst part about summer and also reason to travel around and away from Rustavi was the heat. Never in my life have I experienced these degrees above 0 of Celsius scale. Let me tell you- it was HOT. Basically the entire city was dead till about 6 to 7 o’clock in the evening, when the sun is finally going down and you can actually go out of your house without burning to death and grasping for breath. I’m a little over exaggerating here, but still. One thing I didn’t do during the heat, that was actually on my bucket list, while being here, was frying and egg on a rock out in the sun and taking a video of it. Oh well, I fried my skin at least.

Hundreds of different cheap fruits, watermelon every day, heat, travelling and skateboarding- there you go, TL;DR, summer in one sentence.

Adventures in Racha

Racha, Shovi

September, October, November. The GYE season starts. Actually a couple of seasons start. One of which involve a lot of wonderful and tasty medicinal plants being finally available for use in salads etc. You know what I mean? Hehe. New season, new realizations, starting it full power and still going. I’m really happy to finally see new people coming to the office and actually attending the clubs, events and activities organized by the volunteers. It feels like you are actually doing what you’re doing for someone and something.

GYE office memes

In the end of September a friend of mine- Saba invited me to the countryside of Kakheti region for the traditional Rtveli. It’s a grape harvest. And let me tell you it’s much more enjoyable than potato harvest in Latvia. You work all day, pick grapes, yell: “VEDRA!!” so someone brings you an empty bucket and you continue until the field of grapes is empty. There’s not just one field though, so the whole event happens for a couple of days, for some grape farmers it might even last for a couple of weeks, I assume. And, of course, at the end of it all, the traditional Supra (Georgian dinner).

Drying Churchkhela, Kakheti

There were a couple of things I noticed during this supra. First of all, it wasn’t like the Supras during projects etc. This was super-ultra-mega traditional and I was the only foreigner at the table to consume and absorb all of the amazing table culture goodness that Georgians have to offer. Oh, lucky me! Thank you, Saba. For example, Supra goes as supra goes, eating, drinking ONLY with toasts and ONLY wine etc. etc. And at one point of it all, I look at the table and realize- there are only men at the table. Only men- smoking, drinking, eating, talking and having a great time. Women, on the other hand, have their own little supra in the kitchen and don’t even seem to mind that they are not sitting at the table with everyone else; they are having fun separately from men, talking about and doing their own things. I don’t know about the toasts though, but I assume they also drink with toasts, although much less than men. No one is upset, no one is even thinking about raising the topic of gender equality or some other bull crap, everything is how it is supposed to be, everything is traditional and everyone is happy. There. Think about that.

Jungles of Birtvisi

Other than that, I have learned the language quite a lot. I can understand and catch the topic pretty fast. I can read and write a little bit. The problem for me is actually speaking. I don’t have nearly enough vocabulary to fully express myself, but for simple communication- no problem.  The language actually has some similarities with Latvian. They also have words that don’t really translate into English, one of these words is a swear, that translates perfectly into Latvian from Georgian, but doesn’t sound as good in English. I wish I could share this expression, but I guess you will have to ask me personally, since this article is kid-friendly. 

Black sea, Batumi

There are tons of experiences I have missed in these lines, since I have to finish this article due midnight and some of the experiences I can’t really talk about in an article like this, but they are well embed in my memory and will forever stay there.

For now, I will admit, that I am kind of ready to go home to Liepaja. A simple talk with a close person of mine made me realize a lot of harsh truths about myself and the life I am living. The Midterm meeting also encouraged some planning and reflection.

I have, more or less, a plan for what I want to do and achieve back home and being here, away from the place I really belong and come from, just makes me more eager to so. I am though; endlessly thankful and happy for all of this experience as whole, since it has had a huge impact on my perspective, my views, values and life in general.

Peace!

Martins ‘chuks’ Piebalgs

Goda about her experience- "Things usually happen unexpectedly here."

Two months passed since I arrived in Rustavi and many things already happened here. With the other volunteers we already visited some beautiful places in Georgia.

Mountains, mountains aaaaand again mountains, that is how Mikio described Georgia on the first

day when we came here. And its true, the first thing you fall in love with when coming to Sakartvelo is these majestic gorgeous mountains which attract your eyes immediately. I am from Lithuania which is known to be one of the flattest countries in the world, so maybe that the reason why I love mountains so much. So lets start my first blog about impressions which I already incurred in these two months.

On the first weekend we had an unexpected trip to “Pona” campsite in the north of Georgia with an exchange project of Norwegians and Georgians. And now guess where...in a place surrounded by huge and of course beautiful mountains. It was my first time to climb in the mountains and moreover reaching the mountain top where there was a waterfall! After 8 kilometers by walk we finally saw it and the view of the waterfall was amazing.

During the second week we went to On-Arrival-Training in Kobuleti for 5 days. The training was dedicated to volunteers. I met new people there from different countries and we became friends with them. Our trainers prepared many activities for us and I can really say that all of us got new knowledge and motivation to go forward on our chosen way to be volunteer. ...I almost forgot to tell you about my swimming experience in the middle of the night in the Black Sea under the dark sky with lots of twinkling stars above. It was really wonderful and it wasn't cold at all. It was September and then the weather was still warm, around 20 degrees at night. Such temperature in autumn is very unusually for me too.

“Hi girls, we have a trip with Latvian project tomorrow to visit the countryside school and see

canyon, do you want to join us? We leave at 8.30 a.m.” - Nana (our leader and mentor of GYE

organisation...actually she is like an older sister for us) This is the offer we got around 9pm the day before the trip and of course we accepted it. That night I was thinking: yeah, I am in Georgia now and things usually happen unexpectedly here so I will need to get used to this part of the Georgian culture. In my country we normally plan with a lot of time in advance and how I already found out Georgians love surprises.

Of course we cant forget Tbilisi. It would be a shame to go to Georgia and not visit Tbilisi, so I've seen it already. That is where I fell in love with the second thing here: the Chronicle of Georgia,

which is I guess one of the calmest places in Tbilisi. It was a peaceful and magical place.

Rustavi has a hill with a cross on it that shines green during the nights when its dark and now I can

proudly say that I saw this cross up close. Not long ago I climbed to it with other volunteers.

I have my clubs in GYE a few times per week. I work with children to improve their English

vocabulary and also I continue living out my passion for dancing in preparing training for girls who are interested in it.

These two months here were challenging and full of new experiences and impressions and I am sure it will definitely be more.

Goda

Impressions about Georgia "I am glad that I took a gap year between my studies."

I am Erika, a new volunteer from Lithuania. I have been in Rustavi for 2 months now and I can tell with confidence – I am glad that I took a gap year between my studies. You learn so much in such a short amount of time! I mean, there’s no way I would have been able to gain so many different experiences just in 2 months if I didn’t choose to go abroad. I feel like things that I learned aren’t easily describable. Before coming here I definitely didn’t know what to expect, but I am pretty satisfied with the current situation.

The food here is very delicious and weird at the same time. Especially the cheese, it’s so salty. I guess we should get used to it. My favorite dish (I think I would manage to feed on this every day) is khinkali with mushrooms. This traditional dish (many countries have very similar looking dumplings, but who cares) is so so so good! Khachapuri isn’t my favorite, but if you know a good place to get it, it’s pretty good. In general, I love how Georgians buy most vegetables in bazari. It sounds like a healthy diet, but when supra time comes, you can’t not overeat.

Talking about supra… I love how Georgia has deep traditions for it and how accurate are they until now. I guess every supra is different, I have only participated in 3. So many more coming! What I noticed (and what is completely different from Lithuania) is that Georgians have this very warm way of greeting people. A simple handshake apparently doesn’t

do the job. :D It’s really heartwarming to come to a country and actually feel welcomed. We had this fun (and of course educational) experience of grape picking. The owner of the place took pictures of us for memories and after all the work gave us some wine to taste. It was made from the grapes that previous volunteers picked. So you get the idea –Georgians know how to show hospitality.

But I think the most important part is the people that I get to hang out with. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel like everyone more or less understands that every volunteer is different and accepts those differences. Most of the time I feel positivity coming from people and that just gives me inspiration. No pressure, only your own initiative, no strict deadlines (Georgia in general is pretty chill country when it comes to tome management). And a lot of free time for your own improvement. Travelling, learning Georgian language, simply exploring Rustavi, whatever comes to your mind, whatever you desire.

I usually spend my free time hanging out with flatmates and other volunteers. A movie night is not a rare event in our flat. We even made a movie list that many people who come over fill out. We pretty often keep in touch with our fellow volunteers from on-arrival training (which was great by the way, both educational and partying parts). I didn’t have a lot of chances to travel yet, but we have big plans ahead! I had a chance to explore Tbilisi a bit with some of our fellow volunteers. What left the biggest impression so far was the monument called “The chronicles of Georgia”. It’s huge and very detailed! Basically, you can see the entire history of Christianity in Georgia.

In GYE office I lead a self-expression and English conversation club. I also take care of monthly newsletter called “GYE bulldozer”. I’m still wondering who thought of that name. :D I spend my days researching ideas for this beautiful initiative that me and Goda (another Lithuanian volunteer) are responsible for. It’s called “Humans on Rustavi”, go like the page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/humansofrustavi. To me, a pretty closed of person from a small town, this responsibility was challenging at first. You know, coming up to strangers and starting a conversation in a foreign language isn’t easy. But since I’m very into learning about human communication, that’s a perfect practice ground for me.

So, after spending 2 months in Rustavi, I started to seriously like it. Some say that it’s a boring city, but with the right people you can make it fun. Now all the confusion that you get when you first arrive is fading away, so I basically feel like home more and more. I’m sure so many more experiences are awaiting and so many more people to meet. I’m exited to learn and share my own experiences with Georgia!

Peace, love and best wishes,

Erika

Unlock the wold in Romania

My name is Giorgi Papashvili and i spent 5 month EVS in Romania. When I started my EVS, it was hard..  I was learning to be independent - how to survive by obtaining basic life skills, cooking, do some basic housework etc. 

At the beginning breaking the day routine was hard. After some time the situation was changing, for example my roommates moved to another flat and new people came. 

Active task implementation, and how without weekly parties, then the On Arrival Training which was so interesting, specially for me because I was alone from my country there. I met many people. I talked to many people and I learned many things.

This EVS was good for me, interesting and full of adventures. Camping in Romania was perfect. Thank you Valentine for the tent by the way. :)

Now I am back in Georgia. From here it is the same, but I realized that there I had more freedom..

I will remember my EVS in Romania. Thank you my hosting organisation - Asociatia EXPLORATOR.

EVS story from Latvia

Diana Uchumbegashvili: "As many of us know and have experienced, living in another country changes you forever. You will never be the same and will never see things the same way again. The joy of having spent time in another country is that you slowly become a part of it and bit-by-bit one of its people. Our attention to detail is heightened and we make a concerted effort to understand and fit in until we become one with our new location. This is just a little bit about my experience in my second home, Latvia. Honestly, I believe it's impossible to describe all the amazing things I got to do, learn, feel and experience here.. Long story short - This country has taken half of my heart and will always stay there".

Lets meet Gumbati

"Hide! Hide!
I heard. What? I don't know this word! I was looking at the young guy with very surprise face.

Hide — Let's go — he said again.

Ok, let's go.

We were walking up the hill. From the top you can see village and mountains all green. Gumbati, the village near to Tsalka when we were is small place where live around 100 families. Most of them moved here 20 years ago from Adjara region. During the summer when in Rustawi is incredible hot, in Gumbati temperature is more chill and you can be outside all day.

One of person which was moves here is Ira. I met her 3 months ago. She was participant in project: "Silence is not a gold” where I was helping. Few weeks ago she invited us to her village. To meet her pupils and motivate them to speak in English.

Ira is Georgian and English teacher at school. She and her parents open learning center, and they are helping kids with learning and prepare to the exams. This is also place where they are coming to meet each other and spending time. Actually besides playing field in the village is no place to go.

I was visiting this village with two volunteers from France. Lola and Mikio, which kids called Miki, because it was for them easier to use.

During this week we prepare activities, we told about our countries (Poland and France), we show few tips :” how to look for a job”, team buildings games and outdoor game in Gumbati. Kids from the village are amazing they were with us most of the time showing the neighborhood, taking us up to the hill, to the river, playing with us in volleyball and football. Even director of the school invite us for small supra when he was welcoming us in the village and took a toast for our friendship.

In previous week kids finish the school. One of the day, they decided to make goodbye party. Ira prepared for them small present. All of them get soap bubbles, and whole yard was full of them. Every young person get one big bottle full of magic liquid. And they start to playing, running, making bubbles in a thousand different ways. This is one of my favorite moment during this week. I will be miss this place and I hope see all of them again." Marta Polish volunteer.

Levani about his project in Romania!

Hi, I am Levani Shubitidze from Georgia. I did my EVS in Craiova, Romania. I participated in a blood donation campaign with a "Red Bracelet" group. 
https://www.facebook.com/redbracelet2club/
This experience has been amazing and unforgettable, I met so many talented, smart and open-minded people from different countries, we did together a very good job and also managed to enjoy our stay and have fun. We really lived like a small family. We traveled together around the country, also in Hungary.  Romanian people are very welcoming and I felt very comfortable there. This volunteering period is a great contribution to my future professional and personal life, I am returning to my country not only with stunning memories but also with better skills for life, new knowledge and most importantly, with big motivation to start a new better career. I am very thankful to the people who supported me before and during my volunteering time in this beautiful city.

“Share the opportunities” - My EVS experience in Latvia

Hello! My name is Beka Beriashvili, I’m from Georgia and from 05.08.2018 until 01.04.2019 (8 months) I lived and worked as a volunteer in Latvia, town of Balvi. My main workplace was Balvi Children and Youth Center, besides that depending on the needs of the project I also worked in Vilaka municipality, primarily at Vilaka School and several other places in the municipality.

My EVS project was about non-formal education, so as a volunteer my main tasks were to organize and execute different kinds of activities for the youth, the activities that would’ve been funny, interesting and informative for them, all connected to the main idea of non-formal education. Of course my responsibilities also included helping my co-workers to execute their own ideas and planned activities.

I started with outdoor activities, weather in August was fantastic and more or less it remained like that until mid-October. I organized football tournaments for the local youth, that helped me to get to know them better and to kinda “introduce” myself to the local community as a whole. Meanwhile our center also organized and carried out many fascinating events, activities and parties for locals. In October weather got worse, so my activities moved indoors. I’ve created several Kahoot questionnaires about sports and modern-day events and administered them at BBJC to local teens. With my co-workers help I’ve hosted several “Georgian days” during my EVS, mostly at BBJC but also outside the main workplace, Vilaka school and various local Youth Centers. On these national days I cooked some traditional dishes from our cusine, made presentations about Georgia, gave the local youth all kinds of information about my country, mostly touristic but also some history and alphabet (Yeah, people like our alphabet and they always asked me to write something, it was great :D ). On national days we always had a lot of fun. In parallel regime I started to go to Vilaka school on Mondays and with 1st graders and 7th graders assemble and program metal and plastic constructors of various type, size and shape. I think these activities were educational and productive for both - myself and the kids, you don’t get to see and assemble 500 EUR constructors everyday :). I remember only 1 day when we couldn’t assemble the vehicle in time, on any other day our work was a success.

Latvian kids are smart, talented and well-behaved (take note Georgia!) so I’m sure all of them have a bright future ahead. During my EVS occasionally I also had to do some digital stuff, creating diploma templates, banners and etc. To be honest it was nothing good, I don’t like what I’ve created but purely as a new experience doing them and learning something new with every try was really good, I wouldn’t have done it at home so thanks to my project for this opportunity.

Co-workers, the other volunteer and project coordinator now, I won’t get tired of writing how good they are, all of them. From my first day there it’s been “what can we do to make your life better” attitude towards me, they were very attentive and every time I asked something they always reacted immediately. On a personal level they are also great people, I’m very happy that I met them and know them personally now. I’m sure everyone who will go to Balvi as a volunteer under this project will have a great time, with the people who are part of it it’s guaranteed.

Lastly I would like to thank to everyone who made possible for me to be part of my project, to both organizations. A special thanks to my Latvian project coordinator and the people who work at BBJC. I’m also grateful to other people in Balvi and Vilaka municipalities with whom I had a professional relationship in my time there. It was a very special chapter of my life and will remain like that forever.

Nini's EVS story from Latvia

I am Nini and I was volunteer in Latvia, Jurmala. My project duration was 6 months and I want to evaluate my being here, project itself and want to share my experience and emotions to those who want to take part in this amazing experience of EVS.

My project started in August and me and another girl from Georgia came here to work in the youth organization called  Jurmalas youth and children initiative center. As it was summer and after school activities were not that actual at that time period, our organization gave as a task to work in the youth camp, where we designed different games and activities for children aged 10-15. our activities included indoor and outdoor activities on the amazing beach of Jurmala. I want to say a few words about the incredible beauty of Latvia. It is an amazing country, mostly valleys. Jurmala is quite big and long city along the Baltic sea. Beach is covered with white pleasant sand so in summer it is a great opportunity to swim, get sun ten and enjoy the weather. Riga, the capital city of Latvia, is very near to Jurmala (40min by train). It is the cultural center of Latvia as well. So if you want to buy clothes, go to the theater, or go to the cinema, it is better to visit Riga for that purposes.

Before I arrived here I saw on the internet that people are very shy and closed to new relationships in Latvia and I was little worried about that, but in reality, it is not the case. I think it is just a cultural difference. At first, you may feel that they are cold and closed but, it is because we Georgians are very outgoing and expressive. After some time you will understand that difference and make new friends.

During my project I had an opportunity to explore and travel around the country, I saw amazing places and made new friends. That is incredible.

I would say that everybody most tries EVS during lifetime because it gives a great competence. And gives you the opportunity to find out new skills in yourself, and all of it is a part of non-formal education, that means that you are learning through doing.

Till now I found out, that I can make perfect khachapuri without Georgian cheese, I am making dinner every day (that seemed impossible for me). I communicate freely in English and developed Russian skills as well. And yes, knowing Russian really helps here, because more than 30 % of the population are Russians.

When the school year started our responsibilities changed, our main task was to create new projects for youngsters and make publications about that.

I organized several projects here for youngsters: for example yoga class, psychology club, meditation lessons, Georgian language classes, board game night, Halloween party and I managed jewelry making workshops and Georgian food making class.

EVS is an experience that I will never forget and I advise you to try it and you will be amazed because what I wrote here is only one percent of what I actually experienced, what I actually learned about the new culture and most importantly about myself.

I want to say very big thanks to both of my sending and receiving organizations for supporting me in every phase of my project.

Nini's host organisation was Jūrmala Children and Youth Interest Center

https://www.facebook.com/JurmalasBJIC/

Project supported by Erasmus Plus programm - European Voluntary Service